Saturday, November 10, 2012

US State Dept confirms Clinton visit

The US State Department has confirmed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Australia next week for top-level talks.

She will attend the annual Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations in Perth before travelling to Adelaide.

Ms Clinton will be accompanied by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta for the AUSMIN talks, to be held on Wednesday.

Although
long expected, the visit comes just after the US presidential election
and amid speculation that neither Ms Clinton or Mr Panetta will seek a
second term of the Obama administration.

AUSMIN is the highest level forum for Australia and US consultation on foreign policy, defence and strategic issues.
On the Australian side will be Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Foreign Minister Bob Carr.
Ms Clinton arrives in Perth on Sunday.

She will meet Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Senator Carr, and visit the new United States and Asia Centre.

After
AUSMIN Ms Clinton will travel to Adelaide to meet Australian business
leaders and visit Techport Australia, the nation's largest and most
advanced shipbuilding facility and home of the navy's air warfare
destroyer project.

Ms Clinton's visit to Australia is
part of a sweep through South-East Asia which also includes visits to
Singapore, Thailand, Burma and Cambodia.

She travels to
Singapore on November 16-17 to discuss a range of issues with senior
government officials including Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
and Foreign Minister Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam.
On
November 17, Ms Clinton heads to Bangkok, Thailand, joining newly
re-elected President Barack Obama and his delegation on November 18 for
meetings with Prime Minister Yingluck and other senior Thai officials.

She
goes with President Obama to Burma on November 19 and will join his
meetings with Burmese President Thein Sein and Chair of the National
League for Democracy and Member of Parliament Aung San Suu Kyi.

After
that she and President Obama travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on
November 19-20 to attend the US-ASEAN Leaders Meeting and the East Asia
Summit.